EU 'Green' Plans Add £300 To Motoring

Brussels wants new eco-tyres, tyre-pressure equipment, and electronic stability control to come standard on new cars potentially adding £300 to the cost of a new car. The demands to manufacturers are part of EU plans that the motor industry cut its carbon emissions to an average of 120 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
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These ideas are all good and well but in the current costly climate for motorists they are just an additional burden. The EU would do well to its beak elsewhere. National governments should consider these features and implement low-tax incentives if they seriously intend to influence consumer and motorist choices to adopt greener behaviours. As always with European demands and Labour's implementation we are given the stick and not the carrot. The incentives must be there to encourage the purchase of greener cars rather than yet another stealth tax wrapped up as a 'green' tax.

A Heavy Price Dithering Over Energy

Gordon Brown spoke of the UK's need to increase its nuclear power capacity by building plants in new locations. Addressing oil executives in Aberdeen, at a time when energy prices are soaring, Mr Brown said: "We want to do more to diversify our supply of energy and that's why I think we are pretty clear that we will have to do more than simply replace existing nuclear capability in Britain. We will be more ambitious for our plans for nuclear in the future."
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This is a damning testament of the high cost resulting from Labour's dithering. They have had over 10 years to prevent the current problem with our ageing energy supply and the burdening costs to the public. Sweet-talking the oil and gas industries to increase production will have very little effect on supplies nor prices. It will take years to build new power stations and they are only talking of proposals now!

Iran Paid Iraq Insurgents To Kill British Troops

The Mahdi Army (Jaish al-Mahdi), one of the most violent insurgent groups operating in Iraq, used money from Iran to recruit and pay drug addicted and unemployed men according to a leaked government document.
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Back in February, US military staff reported that the highest levels of Iran's government are involved in aid to Iraqi militants. President Bush had ordered the capture or killing of all Iranian agents within Iraq, but this news heightens the necessity for action against Tehran. Political opponents argue that these reports are an exaggerated pretext for war, or to justify new military action. In reality it justifies the need to protect coalition troops and preserve our commitment to Iraq.

Eco-towns To Make Hundreds Of Millions

Opposition MPs have discovered the Government's desire to maximise revenue from the sale of Ministry of Defence land is behind the choice of locations for 200,000 eco-homes.
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This government, despite all of its language on climate change, has failed to represent the British countryside or support its conservation. The Labour party traditionally views the rural population as class enemies; therefore we see an absence of empathy for the value of the British countryside. The very fact that the government are selling off more MoD land, to replenish our empty coffers, adds more weight to accusations of down-sizing our armed forces.

Criminal Paid To Leave UK Returns Next Day

Hakim Benmakhlouf, an Algerian thief preying on tourists and hotel residents was paid £3,000 by the Government to leave Britain returned the next day to continue stealing, a court has heard.
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This news report, although not surprising, really does illustrate the absurd Euro-socialist mess we find ourselves in. Labour's Britain truly is the softest touch in the world when it comes to 'crime and the causes of crime'. Whether these criminals are foreign born or home grown; what do we have to do before we see more robust measures?

Israeli Warplanes Intercept Tony Blair's Plane

Blair Force One was within only minutes of being shot down, after failing to identify itself as friendly aircraft, on way to investment conference in Bethlehem.
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An apparent radio malfunction. Could there be more than meets the eye with this story? Judging Blair on his past record for spin and publicity, the internet is buzzing discussing this as an attempt to gain favour with the Middle East.

Fathers Are Irrelevant Say MPs

In a 'free' vote, Government plans effectively declared fathers an irrelevance in modern Britain. Driving a nail into the coffin of the traditional family, MPs voted 292 to 217 to put the selfish interests of "consumers" wanting fertility treatment ahead of the welfare of children.
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This is absolute lunacy! It is not a 'right' to have a child nor are children commodities to be owned or traded. It is a curious notion that in some way opposing this move is denying human rights to gays and lesbians. Whatever happened to the right of the child coming first? In creating a child, the father can be written out of the equation once the biological necessity has been supplied. By doing so is to deceive the child as is what the law intends to do; it will be possible for two people of the same sex to be registered as parents on a birth certificate.

Alcohol 'Curfew' Pilot Proves Successful

Armadale, West Lothian was the first town in Scotland to ban selling alcohol to under 21s from 5pm on weekends from off-licences. The six-week pilot scheme was hailed as a success seeing a 57% drop in assaults, 54% fall in vandalism and a 55% drop in anti-social behaviour.
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A very interesting scheme. It is worth asking why every local authority does not conduct this pilot? The immediate drop in crime looks too effective! Even if this scheme provides a short-term effect at least it would serve as a short-term measure prior to getting more police onto the streets.

Passport Service Writes Off £11m

The Identity & Passport Service (IPS) has reported that it has written off £10.9m in development costs because of the cancellation of the Electronic Passport Application system (EPA2).
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Since opening its new, multi-million pound network of interview centres; the IPS has carried out almost 100,000 interviews with first-time adult applicants without one being turned down. The centres cost £50m to set up and £30m a year to run with about £12.50 of the £72 passport fee going towards paying for them.

£5bn ID Cards Scheme Does Not Add Up

James Hall, Chief Executive of the Identity & Passport Service (IPS), has stated that IPS cannot justify the £5bn National Identity Scheme (NIS) in financial terms within the business case.
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The government will of course make ID Cards compulsory simply to justify the scheme and recoup the heavy losses. In forcing the public to go onto the identity register and receive a card when applying for a new passport means they would be compulsory for anyone wanting to ever travel abroad. The whole scheme was initially ludicrous when proposed in Labour's (now broken) manifesto commitment of only rolling the scheme out on a voluntary basis. The £5bn would have been better served going towards police, border and security services to fight crime and terrorism.

Electoral Cleansing Ahead Of Zimbabwe Elections

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government is sponsoring a campaign of violent intimidation and murder against Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) supporters ahead of the run-off presidential vote..
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Intervention on any scale, is essential to put a stop to the country's tyranny and progressive genocide. The run-off is necessary because apparently no candidate got more than half the votes cast in the March 29 elections. It took the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) five weeks to announce the results and human rights lawyers say the delay was an abuse of the electoral law. Lawyers also complained that there are more than 120 ZEC officials detained in connection with the election results together with 700 people being treated in hospital with serious injuries. Mugabe admits his loyalists killed thousands of oppositon supporters in southern Zimbabwe in the early 1980's.

Britain Expects More Of Its Troops?

Over-stretched and under-valued British troops to be deployed to Kosovo reviving claims that the 'ungrateful' government is demanding too much from our armed forces. 600 troops from the 2nd Battalion, The Rifles will be deployed for six months as part of a NATO reserve force.

Salford Council Writes Off Over £3m In Unpaid Council Tax

Salford City Council had to write off over £3.2m in council tax in the financial year 2006/7. Salford - where Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears is MP - had the highest uncollected debts.

Conservatives Criticised Over 10p Tax Band

Lord Forsyth has said it would be mad to reinstate the 10p tax band. Criticising the Conservatives' defence of the 10% lower rate he stated "what we should be doing is taking millions of low earners who are being hammered with extremely high marginal tax rates out of the tax system altogether."

£57m Hospital Clean-up Shambles

Controversial £57m 'deep clean' of hospitals up and down the country is proving less successful than the Government claims with reports that only 37% are 'on track'.

Law To Allow Discrimination Of White Men

Under controversial government plans drawn up by the Equalities Minister, Harriet Harman, white men could be legally blocked from jobs or promotions to help women and black employees 'achieve equality'.

MPs Announce Public Misled Over Cost Of Olympics

A group of cross-party MPs have declared that "the British public have been grossly misled and the original estimate for the Olympic Games was totally unrealistic". Initial projections were £4bn but costs are now estimated at £9.3bn and growing.

Labour Committed To Public Sector Reforms

Ed Miliband, the Cabinet Office minister, denied claims that the Brown government had halted public services reform and insisted that Labour spending on public services had not been wasted.
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Since Brown came to power, Labour have talked incessantly about their 'vision' but have failed to describe it in any sort of detail or set out plans for implementation. This nonsense about rebuilding relations with public sector workers alienated by perceptions of Blair's permanent revolution just doesn't wash. The unions have threatened industrial action following an undesirable pay offer; held ransom, the government are simply pandering to their paymasters.

BBC Accused Of EU Bias For Soft Loans

The BBC faced accusations of pro-Brussels bias after it was revealed that the corporation had taken out three "soft" loans totalling £141m from the European Union. The BBC had also received grants from the EU worth £1.4m over the past five years. The BBC is funded by the £3.5 billion a year licence fee.

Home Secretary Admits Streets Are Not Safe

Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith suffered a barrage of criticism yesterday following an embarrassing gaffe admitting she did not feel safe walking the streets after dark when she had recently popped out in the evening to "buy a kebab" with a bodyguard.

Nick Clegg Opposes ID Cards

Lib-Dem leader, Nick Clegg, has announced his party's opposition to ID cards and has pledged 2008 will be spent fighting the government's introduction of the identity scheme.